The terrible part is that this made him give up on English lit, which is too bad because there are some truly great writers. For me this includes Chaucer, Ben Johnson, Wyatt, Donne, Shakes., Fielding, Austen, Swift, Blake, Keats, Hardy, Twain, ee cummings, Olsen....
My experience with English teachers was that they were either wonderful or quite awful. There wasn't much inbetween.
I think students are especially vulnerable to English teachers because the subject requires that you write in a way that exposes your feelings and judgment and then this writing is judged by someone who might not understand your feelings nor agree with your judgement and who can always ding you on mechanical mistakes. My dissertation adviser seemed to take a certain amount of pleasure in penning snarky comments in the margins of my thesis proposals. I guess it was his idea of wit. I had to write six proposals before one was accepted.
Doing badly in English seems to feel like you've failed as a human being, and I think English teachers should be very sensitive to that and do all that they can to minimize that effect.
Some do; some don't.
Joanna (an ex English teacher)